


Looking Forward To It

by giantsequoia



Series: Star-crossed [2]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 22:18:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11299977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giantsequoia/pseuds/giantsequoia
Summary: For a prompt. Returning to the Normandy after Cerberus's attempted takeover of the Citadel, Kaidan realizes that some old feelings have stuck around.





	Looking Forward To It

_**Timeline** : A few days after Kaidan rejoins the_ Normandy _crew._

* * *

Kaidan was headed for the _Normandy_ ’s armory with only one thing on his mind: modding the absolute _crap_ out of his pistol. When he was done with it (hopefully), it would punch right through a Cerberus Guardian’s shield. Sure he could aim for the tiny eye slot – precision had its place – but sometimes, like when there were six of them advancing and time was of the essence, it was better to just pop them all with a single clip.

As soon as he stepped off the elevator, however, all thoughts of weaponry and armor-piercing modifications left Kaidan’s mind. Shepard and James were sparring just a few metres away, and they were both shirtless and sweaty.

Kaidan would be the first to admit that James was an attractive guy, but as always Shepard drew his complete attention from the get-go. He kept drifting towards the workbench on autopilot, but his eyes were on the muscles of Shepard’s shoulders as they shifted and flexed.

James grunted as Shepard scored a hit. “Nice one, Loco,” he said, blocking another blow with his forearm and ducking under a third as he danced around his opponent with surprising agility. Shepard rotated with him; James was now blocking Shepard from Kaidan’s line of sight.

Kaidan blinked and looked down at the workbench that had somehow pulled itself up to him without conscious volition on his part. His pistol was here somewhere, wasn’t it? Shouldn’t it be?

No – it was in the weapons locker. Where he kept it. Right.

He ambled in that direction, shooting a glance out of the corner of his eye at Lieutenant Cortez. Steve hadn’t looked up from his workstation. Kaidan looked back at Shepard and James and stopped moving. James now had Shepard in a headlock; Shepard had both hands around James’s forearm.

“Come on, Loco, I’ve seen you break this kinda hold before,” James taunted, although there was laughter in his voice. “That’s not how you do it! Let’s see you put those muscles to use!”

Kaidan frowned, one hand extended towards the locker. That comment annoyed him. Why, though? There was no reason for it.

Shepard let out a somewhat hoarse snort and simply yanked harder, biceps bulging as he broke the hold in a way that was inefficient but worked anyway because of brute force. James had no choice but to release him.

“Oh, is _that_ how it’s gonna be?” James said with a smirk, backing up long enough to rub the probably-soon-to-be-bruises on his arm. He attempted a sudden dive in for a sweep at Shepard’s legs – only to freeze and then recoil as Shepard unexpectedly launched forward, dug his fingers into James’s armpits, and started tickling him.

“Ah! No! Nooo! Com _man_ derrr! Not fair! Not fair!” James cried out, trying to twist and dodge away from Shepard, who was laughing.

Kaidan’s eyebrows had involuntarily climbed so far up his forehead that they might be in danger of merging with his hairline. He shot a glance at Cortez, who had finally stopped working and was staring at the two combatants with an identical surprised expression, fingers poised above his haptic interface.

Kaidan cleared his throat loudly as Shepard and James finally separated, James crossing his arms protectively in front of him and Shepard snickering. Both of them looked over at him, and Kaidan hastened to make it look as though he’d already been working on his pistol.

“Shepard,” Kaidan said courteously. “James.”

James nodded to him amiably. “Hey Major,” he said. “Cooldown?”

This was directed at Shepard, who nodded. James headed off to his personal space nearby and started doing stretches.

“Kaidan,” Shepard said in greeting as he approached the bench. Beside them, Cortez went back to work with a smile and a shake of his head.

Kaidan couldn’t stop himself from running his eyes up Shepard’s body as he came close, but not for more than the brief second it took to make eye contact. “Commander,” he said. “I don’t recall ever coming across that move in the Alliance CQC handbook.”

“We have a CQC handbook?” Shepard asked, wiping sweat from his forehead. Kaidan’s eyes darted briefly to the tuft of hair under his arm.

“We do,” he said. “It might be fun when sparring with your crew, but I have my doubts it will work on phantoms, marauders, or geth hunters.”

Shepard laughed, then stopped abruptly when Kaidan didn’t join in or even smile. “Um... no, you’re absolutely right,” he said. “It wouldn’t. James and I got to know each other pretty well when he was my warden in the months before the invasion. We sparred quite a bit. It was... just a bit of fun.”

Kaidan made a silent “Ah” with his mouth and nodded, trying to consciously relax his eyebrows a bit. “Sure,” he said. “Fair enough.”

He looked down at his pistol and started disassembling it, never more glad that he had the delicate handwork necessary down to muscle memory. It felt like there was a hot coal slowly turning over inside him just below the base of his sternum, and it was calling up a lot of old feelings that he thought he’d let go after Alchera but hadn’t and then had tried to re-bury after Horizon but couldn’t-

“Kaidan,” Shepard said gently, and he looked up. Shepard had leaned in close over his workbench; Kaidan’s breath caught as he realized just _how_ close Shepard’s face was to his.

“I won’t do it again if it irritates you,” Shepard said.

Kaidan blinked and said nothing for a moment, then looked back down at his pistol. “Remember the sparring sessions we used to have on the old _Normandy_?” he said casually, although it was hard not to let the ache of bittersweet nostalgia creep into his voice.

“I do,” Shepard replied. “Some of the best times of my life, in fact.”

Kaidan looked back up at him, hardly daring to speak.

“Maybe we should start that up again,” Shepard went on. By his tone, he might have been commenting on the weather – except for the fact that he’d leaned in still closer, and his voice was so low it was almost a whisper. “I really miss those sessions. And our talks.”

“Me too,” Kaidan said, somehow speaking the words clearly around the lump in his throat, forcing himself not to look away from Shepard’s blue-eyed gaze. Who knew if or when he’d next get to see him from this close?

Shepard smiled at him. “Then it’s settled,” he said. “You’re my new sparring partner. James can tangle with Garrus.”

Beside them, Cortez’s snort of laughter that quickly became a cough seemed to start both of them out of... something. Shepard backed up, and Kaidan nodded.

“Looking forward to it, Shepard,” he said.

Shepard clapped him on the shoulder as he made his way past him to the elevator, and the coal inside Kaidan slowly burned itself out.


End file.
